PARIS — After 34 years, Col. Moammar Kadafi, formerly among the most ostracized men in the world, returned to the heart of Western civilization for a five-day visit to the French capital, including dinner Monday night at the presidential palace.
The leader of oil-rich Libya came with his own Bedouin tent for entertaining and an open checkbook to buy billions of euros in French goods -- including 21 Airbus planes, fighter jets and a nuclear-powered desalination plant for making drinkable water.
The visit, although publicly denounced by many here, including the French human rights minister, is the latest chapter in the rehabilitation of a former revolutionary who seized power in his 20s in 1969 and proceeded to earn a reputation for treachery by diverting Libya's oil wealth to support rebels and Islamic militants. President Reagan labeled him "the mad dog."
Kadafi, 65, has since made a big investment in reforming his world standing. His nation took responsibility for a series of terrorist attacks involving Libyan officials and paid millions of dollars in compensation for the downing of a commercial jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, which killed 270 people, and of another 10 months later over Niger in Africa, which killed 170. In 2003, Kadafi negotiated his way to further respectability with a decision to give up his program to develop weapons of mass destruction.
"As much as it pains me to see Col. Kadafi in France, if we don't accept him it gives power to the people who want Libya to continue to be a terrorist state," said Guillaume Denoix de Saint Marc, whose father was among those who died in the bombing over Niger. "As long as Libya continues to be a normal country, we have to accept Mr. Kadafi. Even if it wakes up our pain."
Kadafi was received in Brussels at the European Parliament in 2004, and several foreign leaders -- including Britain's Tony Blair and France's Jacques Chirac -- visited Tripoli, the Libyan capital, in recent years.
But the last barrier to reciprocal invitations was the imprisonment of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who were charged with infecting Libyan children with HIV/AIDS. After international diplomats spent months negotiating for their release, French President Nicolas Sarkozy closed the deal in July by sending his then-wife, Cecilia, to Tripoli. She helped convince the Libyan chief that 8 1/2 years was too long to keep the medics imprisoned. After their release, Sarkozy traveled to Tripoli and assured Kadafi that he would receive lucrative French contracts. Sarkozy also extended the red-carpet invitation to Paris.
